The night before I had to run to my older kids' school with no time to change out of uniform, for a parent-teacher-student get-together, and as I was leaving and walking away from the school, I heard one the remnants of a conversation as a student excitedly told his father about a cool rifle that a soldier was carrying (me). The father told his son, "there's no way you're going to be a combat solider...no reason for you to be a frier...the government just released 450 Palestinian terrorists today...why bother being a combat solider...don't be a frier...don't die for nothing..."

Do soldiers really end up lying on their backs, looking up at the sky, wondering if it's worth it?

The yells of "SofTargil, SofTargil" (end of the exercise) brought me out of my daydream, and the terrorist who shot me extended his hand to help me up.

He said the other guy should have watched my back...but he took advantage of it to nail me.

Brushing the dirt off my uniform, I took a picture of the spot I was killed, and where I spent 10 minutes looking up at the sky.

But our trainers had more in store for us.

We did about 10 more simulations, and the last one was the most difficult.

Little did I know, but the explicit mission of 1 of the 2 terrorists was to "kill Jameel...don't worry about anyone else...just kill Jameel"

(Our IDF trainers really like me).

I won't go into details of the simulation, but the terrorist didn't succeed.

ChanukaSameach.

Oh, and wish me luck; I may have an unbelievable post coming up next week, which will surpass almost every posting ever seen on this blog.

I still can't get a hold of them by phone and I am hearing from more people *I saw Loiffer in the Me'arat ha'machpela this morning and he told me as well, but he told me he is not involved..) that Sunday night is happening, but I can't get hold of anyone in charge to join in!! ARGHHHHH!!!!!

That father's comment is deeply disheartening; though not a total surprise.

So many of us (myself included) were educated to appreciate Tzahal and maximize our opportunities to serve. Rav Tzvi Yehuda related to army equipment like to 'klei kodesh'! We taught to not only do the mitzvah, but to do 'hidur mitzvah'. Since successive governments insist on resisting the flow of Jewish history, showing disdain for Klal Yisrael, Eretz Yisrael, and Hashem's Torah, and risk our soldiers' lives seemingly without care, it is no wonder that some folks are so discouraged that they would turn their children away for maximum contribution in Tzahal.